Kumasaka (The Robber) is a Noh play from the 15th century. Arthur Waley attributes it to Zenchiku Ujinobu and it concerns the notable Heian period bandit Kumasaka no Chohan.
The play takes the form of a dream-time Mugen Noh.Kumasaka
Legendary background
The samurai hero, Minamoto no Yoshitsune (known in his early life as Ushiwaka) had a series of encounters attributed to him in his youth, one of which concerned repelling a bandit attack led by Kumasaka. Kumasaka is sometimes identified as the slayer of Yoshitsune's mother.H C McCullough trans, Yoshitsune (1966) p. 43-4
Plot A travelling monk is offered shelter by another, on condition that he prays for an anonymous soul buried by a pine tree.A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 28-9 The traveler is surprised to see a large pike hanging on the cottage wall, and the other reveals his past as a robber before vanishing. This reveals to the priest that "It was under the shadow of a pine-tree that he had rested".A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 31
Thereafter, the robber reappears as the ghost of Kumasaka and recounts the story of his last fight and his death at the hands of Ushiwaka: "The wonderful boy...be he ogre or hobgoblin".A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 35-6
Literary associations The play has been interpreted as a retrospective telling of the last part of the genzai-mono play, Eboshi-ori.H C McCullough trans, Yoshitsune (1966) p. 44
Basho referenced the pine tree associated with Kumasaka in a renga: "a pine in memory/of a bandit/broken by the wind".Haruo Shirane, Traces of Dreams (1998) p. 136
See also Benkei on the Bridge El Cid
References
External links Kumasaka